At the heart of it, remote conference attendance is about being inclusive. It is an elegant solution to include everyone in a community. The conference can be attended remotely by people overseas, on a limited budget, or even those at home with a sick child. If your attendee can’t travel to the event, why not bring they event to them?
People are busy, but want to participate
A recent conference by TechCrunch featured 21 people attending remotely for every person onsite.
A client of ours has watched as their online attendance revenue becomes larger then traditional ticket sales. Online attendance options are additive and does not detract from what the community already enjoys and expects from they event.
Offering a remote attendance option is about providing another opportunity for the community to join in the conference. This can be done to increase revenue, capture revenue lost due to changing markets, or be offered for free to promote the event.
Should it be free?
An examination of your goals will determine the right decision. Most conferences should charge for remote attendance. The content is specialized, real time, would cost money to view in person, and the viewing option is saving the remote attendee travel expenses.
The key to paid remote attendance is that the online offering should be marketed alongside your other ticket packages. Nothing special, no hype. Just another option to be a part of the event. It will be the right purchase for some and those people will gravitate to that selection. Adding a paid remote attendance option later or marketing it differently than physical attendance will cause confusion among your community. Live streams that are announced later tend to be offered for free.
Check out how the TED conference markets their livestream option. $500 dollars for the luxury of not traveling. Marvelous! It all depends on how you market the option.
If your content is general interest and tickets will sell out regardless, offer a live stream for free. Better yet, sell a live stream sponsorship to cover expenses.
The next post will cover what it takes to produce a conference livestream. Subscribe to my RSS feed to never miss a post.